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Sunday, July 29, 2012

A new contributor at Lamley: The customs of Scale-Master: Muscle Cars

As the Lamley Group universe grows, we are introduced to more and more amazing aspects of the diecast world. One of those is custom work. I have been introduced to some amazing custom models, and I think it is vital that we show some of them.

A discussion I was having with a couple of collectors a few weeks ago introduced me to the work of one Mark Jones, aka Scale-Master. I saw a few of his pieces, reached out, and since then have seen more and more of his jaw-dropping customs. I want to show these to as many people as possible, so I asked him if wanted to contribute to the blog, and he graciously accepted. We are very happy to have him here.

We thought it would make sense to divide his work into sub-categories. Today we look at a few examples of his muscle car creations:

From Scale-Master:

This is a collection of some of my Muscle Cars customs.

The Plum Crazy 1972 Road Runner GTX was the first of these I did. My goal was to detail with just paint and graphics a standard (Hot Wheels) casting to bring it up to the level that it could be considered as a model, not just a “toy”. I used Testors enamel for the color, and created the graphics in the form of decals.

The Hollowback intrigued me as a campy design, it also had some of the style of the Mopar Rapid Transit show cars of the early 70’s. I mixed a pearl fluorescent green color and made appropriate “vintage” graphics. I opted for a flat finish since it had a little apocalyptic look to it too.

The MB Firebird Formula received a paint scheme I borrowed from its sister car, a ’74 Camaro. However it was black and white with hood also being black, I didn’t want to go “too Chevy” on this Pontiac. The yellow pinstripe was a bit of an experiment to see if I could make it that fine. I used Tamiya lacquers for the colors.

The Vista Cruiser has been a favorite car of mine and I was lucky enough to own one. The MB casting is not the same year, but it is a more attractive car to me. While I restored mine to the wood panel grocery getter it originally was, I often wondered how it would look with an Olds Rallye inspired scheme. After all, the fictional 442 Vista Cruiser has been done nearly to death… Testors Guards Red enamel for the color.

The Superbird is another one I did to try to elevate the casting to the model realm. Fortunately I had already drawn all the Superbird art for the decal sheet for a larger scale model kit, so I just had to resize and print the smaller version. I swapped in some JL wheels to help it look less like the HW it was. All street Superbirds had vinyl tops, and the stark contrast with the white on this car always appealed to me. I airbrushed Testors enamel satin black at low pressure to create the look of a vinyl top.

The Australian muscle cars have always interested me, so when this casting of the Falcon XB came out I just had to do one up in one of my favorite Torino themes. Testors Stop Light Red enamel and decals I made.

The Blvd. Bruiser is an interesting mix of identifiable styles that has a lot of potential to be many things. I chose to go with a bit of a parody inspired by a color worn by some Mustangs, hence the name it proudly wears. Tamiya has an orange in their line of lacquers that looked just like the processed product. Cheesy? Absolutely!